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Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new service across its social media brands — Meta Verified.
The service, which is rolling out first in Australia and New Zealand, will be available this week and verifies accounts across Facebook and Instagram. It costs US$11.95 per month for web services and US$14.95 for Android and iOS devices.
A key feature of the new service, aside from the verified badge, is that impersonation protection is baked in.
“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Instagram announcing the move.
Users wanting the service must be over 18 and will need to provide a government ID to prove their identity. For the monthly cost, Meta Verified accounts will get a badge verifying their identity and ongoing “protection from impersonation with proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences”, according to a Meta blog post.
Verified status also comes with tech support provided by a “real person”, as well as boosted visibility to a user’s comments and in the two platform’s search functions. It will also include “exclusive features to express yourself in unique ways”, according to Meta.
The slow rollout is to test what works and what doesn’t with the new service and to see how users make use of their verified status.
“As we test and learn, there will be no changes to accounts on Instagram and Facebook that are already verified based on prior requirements, including authenticity and notability,” Meta said.
“Long term, we want to build a subscription offering that’s valuable to everyone, including creators, businesses and our community at large. As part of this vision, we are evolving the meaning of the verified badge so we can expand access to verification and more people can trust the accounts they interact with are authentic.”
Meta Verified will be available later this week.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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